Elysian Magnetic Fields

It's often difficult to rate albums so dense in sonic scope. The amount of layers take months to properly digest and in general the amount of time can ware away at your initial impressions. You finally get the entire package, for good or for worse, so to speak. After giving this a satisfactory amount of time through the CD player, I can finally say with some amount of pride in buying that this is an absolute masterpiece.

The music on Elysian Magnetic Fields (EMF for short) is massive in both performance and composition. The riffs and drums echo out amidst the roomy production which fits perfectly with what's being accomplished here. The guitar is about as heavy as a typical Texan while the drums, while used sparingly, slither their way around in equally heavy ways, albeit more subtly. The vocals can vary between songs, but are more often displayed in Mastodon-style shouts which mix quite well with the instrumentation. They're angry, desperate, and, in my opinion, perfect. The bass is laid out in creative arrangements here and there, but most of the time it's there to lay down a heavy low-end. No complaints here.

Each track varies just enough to keep the listener interested, but the album keeps its identity very well known. These are long and winding compositions, but never do they feel tedious. A good helping of doom, prog, and a grab bag of various other genres culminate on each track and in general make for an absolutely magnetic listen.

With that said, I highly suggest you give this album several listens so you can understand the scope of something like this. Its worth the effort. Highly recommended.